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Friday, December 6, 2013

Petroliam Nasional Bhd's (Petronas) Vendor Development Programme (VDP) has helped the Bumiputera companies not only to improve their quality and capabilities, but also acted as a stepping stone for them to compete with other international companies.

This is recognised by PBJV Group Sdn Bhd, which has been with Petronas VDP since 2006. The company is a wholly-owned unit of Barakah Offshore Petroleum Bhd.

Its Executive Chairman, Nik Hamdan Daud, said besides the pipeline pre-commissioning, commissioning and de-commissioning, under the VDP, the company has managed to develop its business to include expertise in hook-up and commissioning, and transportation and installation.

"Getting onto the programme really helps us develop our capabilities and at the same time increase exposure for our company (to international level).

"Before this, without VDP, our jobs are contracts on ad hoc basis. We got a lot of jobs and we deliver the qualities but the difficulty is we cannot plan for our future expansion.

"The VDP has helped us plan our resources and expansion for the future at a reasonable cost," he told reporters on the Petronas VDP here Thursday.

He said the VDP has also helped PBJV's revenue jump over 50 per cent compared with prior joining the programme. Nik Hamdan said under the VDP, a company needed to meet the Key Performance Index (KPI) set by Petronas.

"Among the KPIs are that the vendor needs to comply with ISO:19001 standard, zero lost time injury and zero complaints from clients," he said.

He said every year the company would be audited by Petronas to ensure they met the national oil company's standards.

"We are still under the VDP because Petronas has extended our tenure as we met all the KPIs it set," he said.

Nik Hamdan said the company has managed to expand its investment and did a few jobs in Vietnam and Indonesia.

Meanwhile, Nik Hamdan said Petronas has not sidelined the Bumiputera companies even though the companies were qualified to perform the job.

"Petronas, I believe, look at overall performance of the company," he said.

The VDP is a government initiative to create resilient and competitive Bumiputera entrepreneurs in manufacturing and technical services in medium- and high-technology, with import-substitution as the main end-goal. Under the programme, the vendors are awarded contracts by Petronas and/or its production sharing contractors through single-source direct negotiation.